


Beefcake Meets Spacecake

by vulpesvortex



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6001963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulpesvortex/pseuds/vulpesvortex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tale of flour and plaster dust. </p><p>(Or, Geoff hires Ryan to do the renovations on his new bakery, and we all know what happens next.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beefcake Meets Spacecake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tinypi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypi/gifts).



> This fic was 100% inspired by [this picture](http://foxesonstilts.tumblr.com/post/138888708362/haywooding-ryan-lookin-beautiful-in-the-new) of Ryan looking amazingly delicious in coveralls in the new Immersion vid. It is also my Valentine's Day gift to [tinypi](http://tinypi.tumblr.com): here you go, babe! This holiday is awful but you're not, so I hope you like it. :)

Alright, so, the thing was: there was probably a better place Geoff could have picked for his bakery than the rundown old snackbar he’d bought, which smelled pungently of grease and cigarettes and had grimy trails of condensed fat running up the wallpaper. But the building was close enough to his apartment that he wouldn’t need to use the subway, and it was a good neighborhood. He hoped to get traffic from the surrounding offices and the nearby primary school – parents needed caffeine, right? Geoff definitely needed caffeine, and all he had to deal with were the pastries.  
  
And sure, the bakery-slash-former-snackbar looked like shit now, but just wait until Geoff was done with it. Fumigated, new paintjob, new lights, new sign – Geoff had Plans. 

* * *

  
  
Anyone would tell you that starting your own business was no cakewalk, and renovating a building on a tight budget was a living nightmare, but it was just Geoff’s luck that the thing that was going to throw a wrench in the proceedings for him was the fact that he wanted to climb his contractor like a tree.  
  
Geoff had his entire life’s savings tied up in this bakery, and more than that, it was the dream that had kept him going through the past couple of years of his soul-crushing office job, his escape from the weeping clients, the giant maze of rules, the forms upon forms (God, the _forms!_ If he never sees another piece of paper it’ll be too soon _)_ , and most of all from the sick feeling in his stomach when he had to deny someone’s insurance claim on a technicality.  
  
He couldn't go back to a desk job. He _needed_  this bakery.  
  
What he absolutely _did not_ need was a giant Cinderella crush on the man renovating the place to distract him. Which is what Geoff knew with one hundred percent certainty was going to happen the moment Ryan walked through his door for the assessment meeting, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a streak of plaster dust on his nose.  
  
“Hi, sorry I'm late,” he said, holding out his hand with a shy smile. “Things ran a little late at the restaurant we’re doing downtown. They wanna open next weekend, so everything’s a little crazy at the site right now.”    
  
Geoff realized he should probably stop staring and take the poor man’s hand. “That’s okay,” he said, but on the inside he was screaming. “C’mon, I’ll show you around.”  


* * *

  
  
“Gavin? Gavin!”  Geoff hissed into his phone in the back room. “Are you trying to set me up?”  
  
“Whuh?” Gavin said on the other end of the line, sounding like he’d fallen asleep in front of the television again. Geoff thought he could hear Adventure Time in the background.  
  
“The number you gave me, for the contractor. Are you trying to set me up?!” Geoff hissed again.  
  
“Set you up with what?”  
  
“The guy!” Geoff waved an arm in the direction of the door, behind which Ryan the Seriously Way Too Attractive Contractor Guy was standing in Geoff’s prospective bakery. “The really fucking hot contractor guy! Gavin, I swear to fucking God-“  
  
“What, no! He did the thing at Lindsay and Michael’s apartment, she gave me his number!” Gavin squeaked, offended. “Wait, he’s hot?”  
  
“Yes, he’s hot!” Geoff managed with some effort to keep his voice down. It was bad enough that he was having this conversation. If Ryan heard him, that’d be all he fucking needed. “He’s scruffy and sorta shy and he’s got a smile like the fucking sun, and he showed up in coveralls straight off some other job. I’m so ruined, Gav. No one should look this good in coveralls. _No_ _one_.”  
  
The line was silent for a moment. Geoff peeked at Ryan the Contractor Guy through the door. “So, are you gonna hire him?” Gavin asked eventually, clearly suppressing laughter.  
  
Geoff groaned. _Fuck_ his life.    

* * *

  
  
So, Ryan was hired to transform the old snackbar into Geoff’s perfect vision of a bakery, and Geoff, as predicted, went ass over teakettle falling in love with the guy. Gavin seemed to think the whole thing was hilarious, and also the perfect opportunity to scam Geoff out of baked goods.  
  
Geoff acquired the requisite appliances for the kitchen, among which were: bigger and better ovens, several of those ceiling-high cooling racks and a truly giant mixer. He decided he might as well start breaking them in, so he could get the hang of everything before he opened, figure out any problems before they became disasters.  
  
Ryan stripped the walls, rewired the electronics in basically the entire shop, built a new dividing wall to block off the kitchen from the counter, put in new fixtures, and was in the process of repainting the whole thing from top to bottom. On his lunch break, Geoff made him try whatever he was making that day and carefully noted down his comments and suggestions, which always made Ryan go a little pink in the cheeks.  
  
“Really, don’t listen to me, you’re the baker.”  
  
“It’s not like I’m an expert,” Geoff said grumpily, nervous though warmed by the praise.  
  
“I’m sure you’re gonna do fine,” Ryan said, patting Geoff comfortingly on the shoulder over the counter. Ryan was there for the first freakout Geoff had after he burned three batches of muffins in a row, and also for the one that happened when Ryan had walked out of the kitchen and said, “So, I’ve got good news and bad news.”  
  
Geoff let out a pained squeak as his brain painted vivid mental pictures of his dream going down in flames. “What is it?”  
  
“Well, whoever you bought this place from was definitely lying about the wiring being up to safety standards. Good news is I can fix that for you.”  
  
Gavin came by most days after class to mooch coffee off of him and help grade the recipes Geoff was trying out. Geoff knew it was probably weird that he was hanging out with a grad student at his age, but honestly, without Gavin to play videogames and eat pizza with to pull his head out of work he would probably have gone nuts and murdered all his co-workers at the insurance company, so Geoff was not complaining and, more, willing to stab anyone casting aspersions. Ryan seemed amused by their banter, looking up from his work to give them a confused smile whenever they got particularly ridiculous.  
  
They were a good few weeks, leading up to the opening of the bakery. Gavin’s ribbing and Ryan's gentle encouragement bolstered his confidence, and it was wonderful to see his dream taking shape before his eyes. Maybe this whole thing wasn't as nuts as everyone had told him when he first floated the idea.   


* * *

  
  
“So, when are you going to ask him out, huh?” Gavin said as he watched Geoff watch Ryan disappear into the kitchen with a welding torch and goggles.  
  
“Ssh!”  
  
“Serve you right if he heard, kick your ass into gear,” Gavin said uncharitably. “What the fuck, dude, you never dillydally like this.”  
  
Geoff iced another red velvet cupcake. “I really like him, okay. I don’t want it to go wrong.”  
  
Gavin rolled his eyes. “You better remember me in your wedding speech, man.” He grabbed one of the finished cupcakes off the tray. “I’m claiming this cupcake in payment for introducing you two.”  
  
“You’ve already claimed a fucking dowry of cupcakes, you hoser,” Geoff said grumpily, but he didn’t smack Gavin’s hand away or move the cupcakes.  
  
“I’m just waiting for the right moment to-“ Geoff nearly swallowed his tongue when Ryan darted out of the kitchen behind him, making apologetic noises about forgetting something.  
  
He came back in carrying some piece of equipment, gave Geoff a brilliant smile and rubbed at his top lip. “You’ve got some- In your mustache,” he said, and disappeared again behind the kitchen door. The sound of the welding torch started up again.  
  
Gavin held out his hand for another cupcake. “You owe me so much.”  


* * *

  
  
The day the neon sign for the shop was finally delivered should have been a good day. A great day, even. It said _Take the Cake_ in bright, blocky swirls of red and pink against a deep blue background that glittered lightly with stars. Geoff had had it custom designed; it was the crowning glory on the bakery and one of the last things to do before he could open officially.  
  
“’Take the Cake’?” Ryan read out loud, that teasing smile that ruined Geoff every single time tugging at this lips as they unpacked it.  
  
“Yeah,” Geoff waved a hand at one of the astronaut girl pinups on the wall. The whole bakery was decorated in the style of a space-themed 1950s diner. “I considered calling it _Beefcake_ , but eventually decided I didn’t really want to deal with Sweeney Todd jokes for the rest of my life. And I don’t think _Spacecakes_ ’s going to attract the right clientele.”  
  
The fucking sign didn’t work.  
  
Fortunately, it wasn’t the sign itself that was messed up – it worked fine when they hooked it up inside – but the storefront’s wiring turned out to be screwed up beyond recognition. It was the most frustrating thing ever: Ryan would spend three hours up on a ladder futzing with the wiring, the casing, anything that could possibly be causing problems, and would get it working usually near the end of the day. Then, when Geoff tried it the next morning, the sign would be broken all over again.  
  
“I just don’t understand what’s wrong with it,” Ryan sighed on the third day, rubbing his neck and sipping at the coffee Geoff gave him. Geoff wasn’t trying to compete with Starbucks or anything, but as Ryan drank his coffee black, Geoff didn’t think he minded. “It’s like you’ve got leprechauns or something.”  
  
Geoff was getting a little antsy – the sign was starting to seem like a bad omen for this entire venture – but not enough that he wasn’t a little grateful for the way the sign snafu was keeping Ryan around a little longer. The work on the bakery was almost done and Geoff still hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask him out.

 

* * *

  
  
Things came to a head on Valentine's Day, which Geoff would be disgusted by if he actually had anything to do with it. The bakery had been open for a few weeks now, but Ryan was around fixing little things here and there whenever they needed fixing. Geoff missed having him to himself all the time, but nothing brightened his afternoon like having Ryan drop by with a box of tools and a smile just for Geoff. The school moms certainly didn’t seem to mind either, from the way they tittered and stared at him. It might have been half the reason Geoff was doing decent business those first few weeks.   
  
Ryan was up on a ladder working on the stubbornly broken neon sign again. It'd lasted a whole two weeks this time, but this morning it was busted. It was still early in the day, just after the morning rush, and no one was around. Geoff used the time to replenish his supply of Valentine’s Day-themed goods, trays upon trays of brownie hearts and frosted cupcakes cooling on the racks. He was idly watching Ryan tinker with the sign – it was a good view - and thinking about how happy he was not to be among the office-dwellers that hit up the bakery for coffee and a breakfast muffin on the way to work anymore, when he saw Ryan wobble on the ladder. Before he knew what he was doing, he had rushed forward to catch him, and it was only when he was lying on the floor with Ryan on top of him that he realized he'd thrown his tray of frosted Valentine's cupcakes in the air.  
  
"Oh," Ryan said, soft and awkward. There were at least three cupcakes squashed between their chests.  
  
"Hi," Geoff said back, just as awkward, though he couldn’t help grinning. "You alright?"  
  
"Yeah. Thanks, nice save." Ryan picked at some of the gooey frosting sticking their shirts together. He planted his hands to get up. "I should-"  
  
Geoff grabbed him by the shirt. "You could stick around."  
  
Ryan's face did something interesting then, moving through surprise and amusement to settle on a disbelieving groan. "You did not just say that."  
  
Geoff threw his head back in embarassment. "Oh god, I know, so terrible, I am so sorry-"  
  
A cupcake took that moment to cede its fight with gravity, unstick from the ceiling, and hit Geoff square in the eye.  
  
"Ow! Fuck!"  
  
Geoff curled up even though Ryan was still sitting mostly on top of him and rubbed desperately at his eye. There was frosting everywhere, and fuck, he’d just made a pass at Ryan and gotten blinded by a fucking pink frosted cupcake falling from the heavens like the wrath of God and, really, Geoff had no options left at that point except to start laughing helplessly. It started as a slow giggle that quickly escalated into full-blown guffaws, and then he and Ryan were roaring laughter at each other, rolling around on the floor clutching their stomachs and each other.  
  
"Oh my god, are you alright?"  
  
"I'm fine, I'm fine, what the fuck-"  
  
"That's the funniest fucking thing I've ever-"  
  
"I fucking threw the cupcakes, who does that-"  
  
"You caught me-"  
  
And then they were kissing, Ryan knocking him against the ground and pressing Geoff’s lips open with an eager tongue. Everything tasted like sunshine and too much sugar. Geoff got his hands on Ryan's shoulders: he might never touch anything else ever again, the way his fingers were clutching at him, but Geoff guessed there were worse things.  
  
Gavin walking in, calling, “Geoff! I got you those ground almonds you wa-Whoa!” was definitely one of the worse things.  
  
“Gav-“  
  
“Oh thank Jesus, I can finally stop sabotaging the sign,” Gavin said, like a fucking crazy person.  
  
“That was you?!” Geoff and Ryan yelled in unison.  
  
“Duh.” Gavin plonked the bag he’d been carrying onto the counter and grabbed a cupcake from the cooling tray. He took in the frosted disaster area that was the shop with a satisfied look. “Please tell me you guys had a cupcake fight.”  
  
“You could’ve bankrupted me!” Geoff yelled.  
  
Gavin shrugged, breaking off half the cupcake and popping it into his mouth. “You needed more time to grow some balls.”  
  
“You are simultaneously the best and worst friend I have ever had,” Geoff said with a hint of wonder.  
  
Gavin waved him off, grinning wickedly. “Save it for the speech, Geoff.”  
  
“I hate you,” Geoff said.  
  
“What speech,” Ryan said.  
  
And Geoff was definitely not ready to have _that_ conversation, so he rubbed away a stray bit of pink icing on Ryan’s cheek and kissed him some more.


End file.
